Halloween History: Iggy And The Stooges Make Their Live Debut At U-M Party On This Date In 1967

GOLD COAST, AUSTRALIA - JANUARY 23: Iggy Pop and the Stooges performs on stage during the Big Day Out Festival at the Gold Coast Parklands on January 23, 2011 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)(Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Today in 1967, Iggy and the Stooges made their live debut when they played at a Halloween party on State Street in Ann Arbor, Michigan. John Sinclair, manager of Detroit’s MC5, caught the show and soon got the band booked to play the motor city’s famed Grande Ballroom.

In the Joe Ambrose book Gimme Danger: The Story Of Iggy Pop, John Sinclair said, “It wasn’t like anything else I had ever been to. I don’t know if there were 20 people there. I was terrified. I just thought ‘Jesus, they can hear this all the way downtown.'”

The Stooges would go on to influence many groups in the punk rock and alternative scene. In 1976, the Sex Pistols recorded the first high profile Stooges cover, “No Fun,” and Kurt Cobain consistently listed The Stooges album Raw Power as his No. 1 favorite album of all time in his “Favorite Albums” lists from his Journals.

The Stooges were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2010.In 2004, Rolling Stone ranked them 78th on their list of the 100 greatest artists of all time.